Big Ben's Retiring........

[*rfaulk34*]

(12-22-2021, 01:56 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Despite my caring less and less by the day for the NFL product I'll give a stab at a response here.  Ben may never have carried the team on his back for a whole SB winning season, but he certainly did so during key stretches.  Much is made of his relatively poor showing during SB XL, which is fair.  What is not fair is ignoring his earth scorching performance that got the team to that game in the first place.  This even omits his season saving tackle on the inexcusable Bettis fumble at the end of the Colts game.  His performance in the game winning drive of SB 43 is nothing short of masterful.  Much is made of Holmes' toe tap catch in the EZ that won the game.  What is routinely ignored is the fact that Holmes completely muffed a far easier TD catch earlier in the drive.  Of course even on the winning TD pass Ben must be given a huge share of the credit for the TD.

Even in today's watered down, garbage, NFL product a successful running game and a competent defense is needed to succeed in almost every circumstance.  Ben has done far more with what he was given than such NFL luminaries as Peyton Manning, a perennial under-performer in the post season.  In fact, he's done far better, with generally lesser tools, than John Elway, whose QB game most closely mirrors his.  It's certainly fair to criticize Ben for his shortcomings, but to claim he's anything other than a HOF QB who has accomplished far more than most NFL QB's will ever dream of is just amateurish homerism, which I know you're far better than to succumb to.  

I agree, he was good enough overall with his own play in spurts to win important games and he will eventually end up in the hall, i'm just saying he's never been able to carry a team that didn't have a top defense and a running game that was just plain good or needed to play good in a playoff game. 

JS said "He ain't carrying the team anymore". I'm saying he never did carry them when the defense and running game weren't up to snuff. Just so you don't think i'm talking out my ass, here are the things i'm talking about. This is all from 2005 on. 

Looking at their SB years first:
2005 the defense was 3rd in PA and 4th in YA. The rush offense was ranked 5th in yards. 
In the final 8 games (incl SB) they went 8-0
Defense gave up an average of 11.8 per game
Rush offense averaged 158.3 per game
Ben was 9/5 td/int, in 8 games. 

2008 the defense was 1st in PA and 1st in YA. The rush offense was ranked 23rd in yards. 
In the final 10 games (incl SB) they went 9-1
Defense gave up an average of 14.4 per game
Rush offense averaged 109 per game (meh)
Ben was 10/5 td/int in 10 games. 

2010 the defense was 1st in PA and 2nd in YA. The rush offense was ranked 11th in yards.
In the final 10 games (incl SB) they were 8-2 (lost SB to GB)
Defense gave up an average of 14.4 per game
Rush offense averaged 126.9 per game
Ben was 11/5 td/int in 10 games 

In the 2016 season where they lost the AFCCG:
2016 the defense was 10th in PA and 12th in YA. The rush offense was ranked 14th in yards.
In the final 10 games (incl AFCC) they were 9-1 (lost to NE)
Defense gave up an average of 18.5 per game
Rush offense averaged 134.8 per game
Ben was 12/10 td/int in 10 games 

In years where they fell short of the AFCCG: 
2010 Ben's rating was 77.4 with 2/2 td/int, the offense rushed for 126 yards and the defense gave up 31 points in the playoff loss.
2011 Ben's rating was 75.9 with 1/1 td/int, the offense rushed for 156 yards and the defense gave up 29 points in the playoff loss.
2014 Ben's rating was 79.3 with 1/2 td/int, the offense rushed for 68 yards and the defense gave up 30 points in the playoff loss. 
2015 Ben's rating was 94.3 with 0/0 td/int, the offense rushed for 85 yards and the defense gave up 23 points in the playoff loss. 
2017 Ben's rating was 110.5 with 5/1 td/int, the offense rushed for 83 yards and the defense gave up 45 points in the playoff loss. 
2020 Ben's rating was 85.5 with 4/4 td/int, the offense rushed for 52 yards and the defense gave up 48 points in the playoff loss. 

That's a lot of "not carrying" if you ask me, besides the SB GW drive against Arizona and him doing everything he could against Jax in '17. 

For his career, his playoff stats look like this; 63% comp, 7.7 ypa, 34td/28int, 86.4 rating.

P.S. I added the  at the last second...cause it made me chuckle.